Archive for September, 2007

Well this past week has been a pretty busy one but I finally have a little time to write so here we go. This past weekend I played a concert with the River Cities Symphony Orchestra in Parkersburg West Virgina. The Program consisted of Brahm’s first symphony and the Grieg Piano Concerto. Both pieces were fun to play and went over pretty well in the concert. The soloist on the Grieg was excellent and really “rocked out” on the cadenza of the first movement. My bass playing colleagues tried to follow suit in the Brahms by playing very aggressively and with a great deal of gusto. I did find myself becoming very jealous of two of my section mates fine basses and especially their low “C” extensions which enabled them to shake then stage. Aside from this I finished reading Mary Pipher’s book Writing to Change the World which was excellent and naturally very well written and has provided me with a push of sorts to start getting more of my ideas out in some form of written media. It is my plan to make this blog the format for some of these segments. In other news I have began reading a book for my Middle Eastern History class entitled Daughter of Persia which is the memoir of Sattareh Farman Farmaiah who grew up in early 20th century Iran and bore witness to a number of changes which shaped Iran into the country we know today. Reading this book has put the recent (yesterday I believe) of the current leader of Iran- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into perspective, as Iran was in many ways so close to achieving a democratic secular society that it is even more depressing to see it as it is today. Well thats about it for now I hope to update more regularly so check back often for updates.

Well I have been reading a great deal the past couple of days and will have to maintain this voracious pace for the next through the weekend if I hope to stay ahead of the game. Earlier today I was a little dismayed at how much I have to do but I now realize that in many ways it is worth it in order to gain knowledge which is my primary function at the moment. This is one of the few redeeming aspects of going to college is it allows you time to pursue knowledge without having to focus to much on other aspects of life. So for now I gather knowledge that may or may not come in useful (I wonder if the National Amusements grants management time off for Jeopardy appearances?).

Well I have decided to vacation in Dayton this weekend as I needed to pick up some paychecks and Tendie wanted me to be close as he has put me on suicide watch. The reason I am on suicide watch is do to the fact that OU’s football team lost today to Virginia Tech thus negating the powerful (or so I thought) Henderson effect. As you can imagine I am crushed and can barely bring myself to write this. Anyway here are some highlights from my Daytonian voyage.

-First congrats to Boss John on reaching lvl 70

-I am probably going to steal Daybringer’s iphone as it is amazing and it secretly told me that I should own it.

-A purchased a new book on the science of music which should be enjoyable.

-The Buckeyes won so I will be able to score with Tendie.

-I a had a delicious fillet Mignon Friday night at the Paragon.

All in all a amazing weekend! Stay tuned to find out what ensues tonight (Saturday).

So I walk into the first jazz ensemble rehearsal today happy and a stoic can be. This state of gray was however not to last as the “guest” director for our fall concert comes over to me hands me a chart and says “now you will play electric bass on this one, but I will let it slide today”. Luckily for both him and I he turned away before he could see reality shatter in my eye. However the drummers saw the look of doom “are you ok ….you look like you are going to rip him in two”. I laughed it off calming myself down regaining my stoic reserve. I thought it was funny in retrospect as the only thought that went through my head was I play the gaint fiddle!